I’ve posted several times before on the occasional mountain lion attack in California, but bear attacks are less common here. (A few years ago this young California lady was attacked while taking a nap in her backyard near Los Angeles; of course Canadians see more attacks like this recent one.)
This recent California attack (also here, here, and here) happened on August 12 in the area of Long Barn up in Tuolumne County.
Male jogger, 24, encountered mother and her cub and Mama Bear went psycho, clawing him multiple times on back, torso, and legs.
Hiding behind a large tree didn’t help. Hitting the bear with a large stick didn’t help.
Clambering up top a large SUV (Escalade) helped.
It also helped that the SUV owner and family came out to protect the SUV (and possibly the jogger, too, who was extremely LUCKY).
Based on reports, i think the family rendering assistance was also lucky. No firearm was used, only a lot of yelling, waving chairs around, throwing stuff.
I think a gun would have helped, at various points in this scenario.
A Canadian runners’ website offers safety tips including to bring a “self-defence tool” (whatever that is in Canada). The site also suggests: “Running with someone makes you less of a target to any predators (human or animal),” which reminded me of this old Far Side:
